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GROWING UP
BY
Every summer I try to grow a vine I have not had before. Some
like
The Moonflower ( Apple tree and then opened up into 6 inch wide
blooms that smell good enough to attract moths or people. Do not plant
until the air is consistently above 70 degree F. The seeds are hard so I
soak them overnight before planting about one inch deep.
Not every seed grows so I put I have had Porcelain Vine for years that grows leaves vigorously but quite often never gets the berries before it frosts. Not true this year with our early spring! I have a good crop of Porcelain turquoise, blue, deep purple, and lavender berries that are shiny and hard. Sometimes several colors are in the same cluster. It is over the top of a 7 foot trellis and down along the top rail of a 6 feet high chain link fence. My books say it will go to 20 feet with the proper support.
In an old tub there is a Hyacinth Bean Vine (Dalichos lablab)
with dark purple pea like flowers and now reddish pods. It grew up and
now grows along the top of a 6 foot chain link fence. I have tried to
keep the pods along their branches for winter bouquets but they lose
their color. It likes full sun and those big purple tinted leaves need a
good amount of water. It is not hardy in Off in one corner of the patio there is a seven foot steel pole mounted in cement that is being squeezed by a Japanese Wisteria. It was 5 years old before it bloomed. First it climbed the pole and flopped its branches so we put another pole across a walk in cement with a connecting pole and it immediately took over. The Wisteria does bloom some every year with long purple chains. My books say it can strangle a small tree so after so a few years I cut it to the ground but it came up with a thick growth and now across the top a pair of Cardinals nested this year. It has grown so much I must cut it down again and it will be 2 years before it blooms. Blooms are about 7 to 12 inches long with pea like flowers and pods. There are small plants coming up in the spaces in the patio.
For at least 20 years I have had several perennial Sweet Pea
vines on the chain link fence that is 6 feet high and runs almost under
the big A rather weird vine I had for a number of years until my greenhouse froze one winter is the climbing Onion (Bowiea valubilis). I have looked but have not seen any since that happened. Starting from a bulb that does resemble an onion, this vine has a leafless stem that bends and twists and has to be guided upward. It likes potting soil mixed half and half with sand. At its base it produced a number of little onions. Half of the bulb is above ground and the wandering, leafless stem contains numerous short and bent stems. Not beautiful but funny! It grew mainly in fall and winter and rested in the summer. It is supposed to bloom but mine never did.
Cup and Saucer or Cathedral Bells (Cobaea scandens) can grow 25
feet in one summer and comes as a big (one inch) flat seed that takes a
while to get started so it blooms sooner if you start them in pots about
8 weeks before the last frost. They like full sun and good drainage and
produce purple or white flowers about 3 inches long and 1 1/2 inches
wide sitting on a leafy base like a cup. They are not hardy in
If you want a purple fuzzy house vine that will creep over a
table top, then find a Gynura aurantiaca, also called Purple passion or
Java Velvet. The velvet is caused by thick purple hairs. Here in Copyright 2012 |